In this article, we investigate the dark matter phenomenology in the context of simple theories where baryon number is a local gauge symmetry spontaneously broken at the low scale [1]}, [2]}.
Our dark matter candidate is a Majorana fermion charged under the local \(\,{\rm U}(1)_B\)  gauge group, and hence, it has an axial coupling to the new gauge boson \(Z_B\)  present in the theory. This property gives a velocity-suppressed dark matter-nucleon interaction which means that bounds from direct detection experiments can be avoided. The simplest theories [3]}, [1]}, [2]} where baryon number is a local symmetry are very appealing extensions of the Standard Model where the spontaneous breaking of baryon number at the low scale can be understood, the stability of the proton is predicted at any level in perturbation theory, there is a good dark matter candidate in the theory, and there could be interesting mechanisms to explain the baryon asymmetry of the Universe.
